Landman: 10 Best Moments From Season 1, Ranked

There were some great moments in Landman season 1, but these 10 scenes are the absolute best of the Taylor Sheridan show's first season. Landman season 1 covered quite a bit of ground. After introducing the main cast of Landman, like Tommy Norris (Billy Bob Thornton), the show quickly upended Tommy's entire world. By the end of Landman season 1, Monty Miller (Jon Hamm) had died, Tommy became the president of M-Tex, and his estranged wife and daughter moved back in with him. A show that moves that quickly has plenty of great moments to choose from.

Every episode of Landman had something unique to offer, and they all had some shocking, amusing, or tragic moments in their own right. It's hard to choose just 10 of the show's best moments, given how many great jokes Tommy had, how many emotional moments Cooper (Jacob Lofland) and Ariana (Paulina Chávez) had, and how many action sequences the cartel were responsible for. The 10 best moments in Landman season 1 encapsulate all the emotion, humor, and intensity viewers loved about the show, and they all helped make Sheridan's newest series one of his best.

10 The Oil Well Blowout & Tommy's Heroics Shutting Off The Gas Supply

Landman Started With A Bang & Some Great, Intense Moments From Tommy

Taylor Sheridan has always known how to start a story explosively, but he took that phrase quite literally with the premiere of Landman. In the first episode of the series, Tommy had to deal with a blowout at one of his wells, after the workover crew Cooper (Jacob Lofland) was on ignited a gas leak. It was a bold choice to kill off so many likable characters in such a shocking moment, and it perfectly set the tone for the rest of the show. Right from the start, Landman showed viewers that it was going to be intense, gritty, and tragic all at the same time.

Then, once Tommy actually got to the scene, Landman didn't let up on the tension of the moment. Tommy charged in to seal the leak before the tankers could explode, and in doing so crushed his finger with a hammer. It was another intense moment that added a lot of action and excitement to the show, and it also opened the door for some of Tommy's patented humor to lighten things up. As Tommy sucked down a Dr. Pepper and lit a cigarette, he cemented the beginning of Landman as an impeccable start to the show.

9 Angela & Ainsley Throw A Party At The Retirement Home

Angela & Ainsley's Character Development Really Began At The Retirement Home

Angela (Ali Larter) and Ainsley Norris (Michelle Randolph) were contentious characters in the beginning of Landman, but they only got better as the show progressed. The bulk of their character development really got started in Landman episode 7, when Angela and Ainsley first went to the retirement community and had a booze-fueled party with everyone there. From that point on, Angela and Ainsley went from one-dimensional stereotypes to complex characters who were becoming better people. Most of their great moments after that point stemmed from their work at the retirement home.

It was extremely wholesome to see Ainsley and Angela treat the retirement home members as real people instead of walking corpses, and to see them all spring to life when given the chance to do something other than read and nap.

On top of helping Ainsley and Angela move along in their character development, the initial party at the retirement home was a great moment for another reason: it was fun to watch. It was extremely wholesome to see Ainsley and Angela treat the retirement home members as real people instead of walking corpses, and to see them all spring to life when given the chance to do something other than read and nap. Even if it hadn't made Angela and Ainsley better characters, the retirement community would have been a great bit of entertainment.

8 Tommy & Dale Get Revenge For Cooper's Brutal Beating

Landman Felt Like A Classic Western When Tommy & Dale Beat Manuel & Antonio

Landman had wholesome moments, but it was far from a lighthearted show. Luckily, as the beat down Tommy and Dale (James Jordan) delivered to Manuel (J.R. Villarreal) and Antonio (Octavio Rodriguez) proved, it was more than capable of handling dark moments. Seeing Tommy assemble the modern-day equivalent of a posse to rustle up some outlaws was the closest Landman got to feeling like a classic Western movie, and it worked extremely well. Manuel and Antonio were also so unlikable in the right way to make the entire showdown supremely satisfying to watch.

One of the best parts of Tommy and Dale's beat down was the nuance the entire moment had. Tommy asserted that he was just going after them because of his job as a landman, but it was clear that he was barely containing his rage for the men who hurt his only son. Dale also proved to be an interesting character who was ready for anything at the drop of a hat, and was ready to back up his friends as soon as they asked for his help. The entire scene added a lot of texture to the characters of Landman, and it just worked well overall.

7 Tommy Begs Ainsley To Lie To Him About Her Sexual Life

One Of Landman's Funniest Scenes Came From Billy Bob Thornton's Outrage

For all its darkness, Landman was also a hilarious show, and most of its humor came from Tommy. One of Tommy's funniest scenes came after he picked Ainsley up from the patch party while she was straddling Ryder (Mitchell Slaggert). On the way home, Ainsley tried to tell her father intimate details of her sexual encounter, to which Tommy simply screamed like a madman. When they got out of the car, Tommy begged Ainsley to lie to him about her romantic life in a sidesplitting moment that ended with Ainsley agreeing to refer to it as "Bible study."

Taylor Sheridan's Upcoming and Potential Series and Movies	Release Dates
1923 season 2	February 23, 2025
6666 Yellowstone spinoff	TBD
Empire of the Summer Moon	TBD
The Madison Yellowstone spinoff	TBD
Mayor of Kingstown season 4	TBD
Tulsa King season 3	TBD
Beth Dutton & Rip Wheeler Yellowstone Spinoff	TBD
Landman season 2	Unconfirmed
1944 Yellowstone Spinoff	Unconfirmed

Aside from Billy Bob Thornton's hilarious outrage and the expert way Michelle Randolph fed into his acting, that moment in Landman had another major reason it worked so well. Ainsley was quite a controversial character for how sexualized she was, and Landman episode 7 perfectly played on audiences' reactions to her. By showing that Tommy was just as disgusted as viewers were, it felt like he was finally addressing something the audience also wanted to talk about, and it made his jokes hit even harder. It was very well crafted and set-up, and jokes that spend that much time brewing almost always turn out well.

6 Cami Tells Tommy To "Roll The Dice" After Monty's Heart Attack

Cami Finally Got To Do Something In Landman & Made The Most Of Her Opportunity

Another controversial character, Demi Moore's Cami Miller, finally got to turn the tables on her narrative at the end of Landman season 1. After Monty (Jon Hamm) had a heart attack and was waiting on a transplant, Cami had to choose how to deal with the business agreements he had set up before his health crisis. She ended up telling Tommy to "roll the dice" with Monty's fortune, which set the rest of the events of the season finale in motion. Cami also perfectly fingered Tommy as a betting man, and the various emotions she was feeling at Monty's health problems were exceptionally moving.

Like with Ainsley, Cami's final scene in Landman finally flipped the script on how she was depicted for the majority of the season. Cami had barely any lines through the first eight episodes of Landman season 1, and many viewers wondered why the show was wasting Demi Moore on a background character. Then, Landman finally made use of her, and Cami's most important scene actually managed to live up to all the buildup it had gotten over the previous two months. It would have been nice if Moore got more time in the spotlight, but the time she did get was put to tremendous use.

5 Angela Reveals Why She & Tommy Got Divorced

Angela & Tommy's Past Troubles Were Emotionally Moving

One of the earliest examples of Landman flipping the script on its controversial characters came in episode 4. After Angela wrongly believed Tommy was flirting with Rebecca Falcone (Kayla Wallace), she recounted one of the last stories of her and Tommy's relationship before they got divorced. Ali Larter has an undeniable ability to tell an engaging story, and the raw emotions of Angela's past love for Tommy and the unfortunate situation that led to their split made her story absolutely heart-wrenching. To go from a funny anecdote about Tommy's displays of passion to a tearful recounting of a massive recession was a sign of Larter's acting abilities.

To go from a funny anecdote about Tommy's displays of passion to a tearful recounting of a massive recession was a sign of Larter's acting abilities.

Angela's story also did so much work to develop herself, Tommy, and their relationship. Angela was originally presented as just a mean and materialistic stereotype of an ex-wife in the early episodes of Landman. Her story, however, showed audiences a completely different side of her, and it proved that there was still a lot to learn about Angela. It also added so much context to Tommy's personality and his job, and added a fascinating amount of desperation to his work in the oil industry. As far as character moments go, Angela's story was one of Landman's best.

4 Rebecca Shuts Down The Deposition With Some Clever Bluffs

Rebecca Proved She Was One Of Landman's Most Ruthless Characters With Some Well-Made Lies

Not all the action in Landman had to do with oil fields and cartels, and Rebecca proved that. In Landman episode 4, Rebecca and Tommy had to attend a deposition about the plane and truck that were destroyed in a fiery explosion in the series premiere. In a flurry of furious words and terrifying threats, Rebecca completely turned the deposition around and put her cocky rival lawyers in their place. It was almost enough to make Rebecca a scary presence, and it immediately established her as the most cutthroat and intense character in the entire show.

The best part of Rebecca's fiery deposition was that it was all a ruse. Just after the deposition, Tommy met with Rebecca again, and she explained that many of the things she said, such as her dad being a deceased Army Ranger, were complete fabrications. That revelation cemented Rebecca as a stone-cold attorney, and it made audiences wonder what else she was capable of if she could so easily lie in a legal proceeding. The scene set up Rebecca's character wonderfully, and it was one of Landman's most efficient bits of character development.

3 The Whole House Debates Whether Angela Made Paella Or Jambalaya

Everyone Got In On The Hysterics Of Landman During Angela's Paella Dinner

Though Tommy was the main source of Landman's humor, there were a few moments where the other characters in the show got some jokes in. One such scene came when Angela served paella for dinner, but everyone thought she made jambalaya. Tommy had a few great jokes, from telling Ryder that he could handle a spoon to complaining about the lack of plates, but the rest of the household also shined. Dale and Nate tried to put a positive spin on things, Ainsley took her mother's side, and Ryder simply went with the flow and tried to avoid Tommy's ire, all of which was hilarious.

To cap off the humor of the jambalaya mix-up, Angela and Tommy got a great heartfelt moment just after dinner. Tommy explained that he just wanted simple dinners, and in doing so, it felt like he and Angela were actually making some progress and fixing some of the problems that ended their marriage the first time. It was a breakthrough moment for them, and it gave Landman hope that Tommy and Angela's relationship could last.

2 Ariana Explains Her Relationship With Cooper To Tommy

Ariana's Defense Of Her Relationship Perfectly Explained Their Situation & Was Emotionally Moving

Cooper and Ariana's relationship got some special attention throughout Landman season 1, but one moment in particular stood out the most. After Cooper got a much better settlement out of Rebecca and Nate, Tommy came to Ariana's house to ask them what they were doing together so soon after her husband's death. Ariana gave a moving speech about how they don't know if they're in love yet, but that they want to move forward together to find out, no matter how clumsy that process would be. Evidently, Tommy was right to say that Cooper had out kicked his coverage with Ariana.

Evidently, Tommy was right to say that Cooper had out kicked his coverage with Ariana.

Like several other great moments in Landman, Ariana's speech changed the narrative surrounding her relationship with Cooper. What seemed like an ill-conceived relationship based on trauma and grief proved to be surprisingly mature. As Ariana explained that they were still figuring things out and that she hoped God had given her a new love so soon after Elvio's death, it became clear that they weren't making a mistake. After that moment, Cooper and Ariana's relationship became a lot more real, and a lot easier to root for.

1 Gallino Rescues Tommy From The Cartel & Strikes A Deal With Him

Gallino's Last-Minute Introduction Brought Landman's Cartel Story To A Boiling Point

Landman knew to save the best moment it had for last, and that moment proved to be Gallino's (Andy Garcia) introduction to the show. In the finale of Landman season 1, Tommy was kidnapped by the cartel and tortured in the basement of their bar. Just as Jimenez was about to kill him, Gallino came to Tommy's rescue, but he forced Tommy to agree to let the cartel in on M-Tex's oil business, and he said they would be in touch soon. It was clearly a setup for Landman season 2, but it also worked well as a capstone to the first season.

Gallino's introduction was, in many ways, the perfect method to finish off Landman's cartel plot. As the leader of the cartel, Tommy has finally met the man in charge, and potentially the most dangerous person in the entire show. Tommy's also in more peril than he's ever been in before, even though Jimenez was about to kill him. Gallino's introduction both resolved Jimenez's story in Landman and escalated the stakes higher than they'd ever been, which easily makes it one of the best moments in Landman season 1.